Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1887-09-22

communists etc. But alas, how changedl
To-day you can hear all these epithets ap-
piled, and all these complaints made.
Democratic newspapers, such as the Louis
vile Courier-Journal, Richmond Wing,
Bucyrus Forum, and many others daily
publish with immunity columns of such
offensive stuff. 1t is not an uncommon
thing to hear it proclaimed that secession
was rig ht and that it is an outrage to call
the men who fought for it. rebels, or even
TO say they were wrong jeff Davis has
been again paraded and as he Travelled
about the country, we saw him riding in a
car that had for its principal decoration the
stars and stripes and the stars and bars in
tertwined, and Mr.. Grady, the chairman
who introduced him to an admiring and re-
vering audience at Atlanta, did so with the
announcement that it was 'the most glo-
rious day since the resurrection of Christ.
In short, we have reached the point where
it is demanded, not that the war shall be
forgotten, as has been so long the cry, but
that the Confederacy and the soldiers and
people who upheld it shall be pronounced
acquit of all blame aud be remembered
only with pride and praise because of the
bravery they displayed in battling against
the Union Naturally such ideas have been
Indignantly resented, as they should be- and
there has been considerable bitter oontro-
versy in consequence.
Why is all this so? The explanation is
manifest. 1t is due directly and altogether
to the fact that it has been from the begin
ming OF his administration the policy of
President Cleveland not simply to fully and
frankly recognize the people Of the south,
and generously and cheerfully accord them,
as he should all their rights and their
just proportion of all the benefits of gov
ernment but to 90 further, and also in
various ways thst have been resorted to,
seek to do away with the idea that there
was after all anrthing very seriously wrong
about secession and rebellion, and thus
elevate the "lost cause in the esteem of
men until the actors in its behalf could
stand on the same plane with the men
whose herolsm prevented the consumma-
tion of their purpose. This policy has been
evidenced by such acts as the lowering of
the flag in honor of Jacob Thompson, writ
ing eulogies of Confederate generals and
praising John G. Calhoun as a patriot
worthy to be emulated by the coming gem
Grafton of American citizens; refusing to
utter word of commendation for the cause
of the Usion on the field of Gettys burg
going "a-fshing" on Decoration Day, writ
ing insulting vetoes of private pension bills
and proposing to return to the Confederate
states" the flags captured from them In
battle
By this course many of the people of the
south have been misie1 into the belief that
the opinions and sentiments of the people of
the north have undergone change and that
We no longer feel that secession and rebel
lion were the great crimes we claimed them
to be when we took up arms and suppressed
them.
Acting upon this belief, they have been
doing great deal to rekindle the prejudice
and the bitterness of the war They seem
TO think that because Mr. Cleveland appears
to make no distinction between the blue and
the gray, and because he appears anxious
to put both on the same level, everyone else
should do the same, and they accordingly
misinterpret and misrepresent every act on
the part of the loyal people of the north that
is not in accord with the president in this
respect, as an act of hostility toward the
south and as an evidence that there is no
cordiality of feeling on our part toward
them. In bringing about this condition the
president has done an incalculable but not
an irreparable injury to his country. Not
irreparable, because while many people of
the south have been so mised vet the great
mass of them have not been deceived The
great body of the people in the south know
more than Mr.. Cleveland about the devotion
of the people Of the north to the Union and
the results of the war. And, moreover,
they remember how before the war they
were misled, in similar way, by the Dsmo-
cratic leaders of the north, who gave them
mistaken idaa of the spirit and fighting
qualities of our section They are not will
ing to be misled again, and they should
not be- It is our duty to prevent it, When
the war was over the people of the south
had beaten them in the field than they did of
the men who made them underestimate our
soldierly qualities and then went to Canada
or stayed at home during the war, lending
a false encouragement that we would not
and could not succeed And as it vas then.
so, too, will it be now. What the people of
the south want is truth, and their apprecia-
tion will be greater for those who tell it to
them plainly than for those who mislead
them about it. l want to speak the truth
here to-day, and want the people of Ohio
to speak it at the polls in November. 1t can
be spoken in a sentence.
What the people of the north want is en-
tire peace and fraternity for the whole land
and the people of every section. But they
want this peace and good will on the basis
of complete recognition and acceptance of
all the fruits and results of the war and
they will not have it otherwise They do
not want, and will not have arvthing at the
expense of writing down the Union soldiers
as a lot OF tramps and vagabonds, nor upon
the condition that the men who sought to
destroy the Union shall be elevated to the
same plane of patriotism with the men who
saved it. Neither will we be content, so long
as there Is q systematic denial OF right at
the ballot box or otherwise to any class
whatever of citizens We are gladly willing
to accord to the mass of the men who bore
the Confederate banners to battle, the sim
cerest convictions of duty and the display
of the highest possible degree OF manly
courage and heroic valor, but we are not
willing to resognize in any way whatever,
in the slightest degree, any act or speech
that indicates a changed estimate OF the
ideas upon which the Confederacy was
based, and hence it is that we cannot pa
tiently listen to harsh criticisms of our SOL
diers, the extolling of Jefferson Davis, or a
to surrender, in the way that it
was proposed, the rebel battle flags When
ever those flags are disposed OF, II they
ever ara in our time, the men who captured
them should be heard, and they should be 50
dealt with as to make it sure that they viii
never be Haunted to the breeze again. Great
and broad as our country is it has room
for only one flag and that shall be the stars
and stripes. WHAT we want, in other words,
is that all questions involved in the war shall
stand lust where the war left them, and
that with the settlement of that great strug-
gle acquesced in and upheld, our backs,
both north and south, shall be turned for
ever upon all sectional prejudice and bitter
ness to the end that we may go forward,
shoulder to shoulder as one people, in the en-
ioyment of common prosperity, to the
achievement Of that magnificent destiny,
grander than any language can describe,
that is wrapped up in the years of the future
for the whole American people. | rejoice
in the belief that notwithstanding the un-
wise action Of the president, and notwith-
standing the intem perate and unpatriotic
A-N'AJ
of the Democratic party, this desire is
shared by the great body Of the people of
all sections of the country.
The sentiment that was rapidly growing,
and had become well nigh universal, and
which is still entertained by the great mass
Of the people of both sections is that which
the people of the north, and particularly
the people of Ohio manifested toward the
people of Charleston when that city was
overtaken by the horrors OF earthquake.
There was nothing that the most loving
kindness could suggest that we were not
ready and anxious to do, and no people |
aver Acknowledged kindness with a more
affectionate appreciation than was expressed
by the worthy mayor of that city. l am
ure he and his fellow-ctiz are intelli-
gent enough to understand the difference
bet ween the feeling we have for the people
Of the SOUTH and the ideas for which they
were led to their and our slaughter twenty
i've years ago; and l am sure, too, that they
are intelligent enough and manly enough
10 appreciate the one ana respect the other.
It would be fortunate thing il all had
equal power Of Judgment and disorimina-
tion. We could then go forward without a
jar, as we should, to development OF our
physical resources and the upbuilding or
that great internal commerce which is rap
hattv tha aaNriOna